Thursday, June 28, 2012

It's been an interesting week here in Colorado, with sustained triple-digit temperatures and some serious wildfires burning to the north, west and south of us. Over 87,000 acres burned in the High Park fire about twenty minutes north of here (though thankfully that fire is now ~75% contained), and 30,000 residents have been evacuated down in Colorado Springs due to the Waldo Canyon fire. Of more immediate threat is the Flagstaff fire burning on the outskirts of Boulder, quite nearby where I live, and directly threatening a friend's house - he's been on pre-evacuation notice for several days, which has been very stressful. The fires have been fought tooth and nail but were cresting the foothills just a mile outside town overnight:

In the interim, it's been swelteringly hot up in the hobby loft, so it's been a challenge to get much done. I did manage to finish off the ten-man Tactical squad for the World Eaters in time for the weekly challenge being hosted by Dark Future Games however:

On other gaming fronts, we recently finished the Rogue Trader RPG campaign that I've been running, and my friend Dave has offered to run a Dark Heresy campaign for a while, so I also painted up an Anima Tactics model for use as my Sanctioned Psyker. It was a nice change of pace to work on!

At this point I'm struggling to stay motivated on the World Eaters, so I rooted around in the Closet of Doom for some other small project to work on for a bit. Next up on the painting desk is a unit of Iron Hands bikers. I figured painting a mostly-black unit would be a good counterpoint to the mostly-white of the World Eaters!

I couldn't ignore the roar of Mork and Gork in my head any longer - they demanded I "Stop paintin' dem humie gits and work on sumfink Orky fer a change". I honestly needed a little break from the white and blue of the World Eaters and the Dakkajet was just the thing!

There are still a number of Orks lurking in the Closet of Doom, consisting of a number of different clans - I have a predilection for the Bad Moons (as my last name is Moon), but I like to include other clans as well for fluff purposes and in order to give me an opportunity to paint other color schemes. It seemed to me that the Dakkajet ought to be painted up in Speed Freek/Evil Sunz colors - which also allows for the use of the "Red Paint Job" upgrade.

I usually go with a heavily weathered look on my Orks, though the technique is rather different than how I've been doing the Marines. Rather than paint it up pristine and then weather it down, I started by giving the entire plane a heavy metal drybrush, then went over the main panels with the red paint colors, leaving the edges of the armor plates' metal finish exposed. I painted a couple of the panels various other shades of red to add to the ramshackle look, and added some yellow flames to give it some spot color.

I thought the underside of the plane needed something, and a little insult from the pilot seemed appropriate! Overall I have to say this kit was an absolute blast to build and paint, and the amount of options and bits provided in the kit were fantastic. I'm quite looking forward to building a Blitza-Bomma at some point soon!

Monday, June 18, 2012

So I've been doing really well keeping on task with the World Eaters recently. Feeling good about the progress, and am on track to finish up the army in another month or so. There haven't been any hobby distractions recently that would... interupt my... um...

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

I realized while updating the painting chart that I haven't actually painted up any Troops choices, which are essential to the current FOC and I assume will be in the upcoming edition as well. Sticking with my "build one/paint one" plan, I pulled out the box of World Eater bits and built out the first of two ten-man Tactical squads. Gave them a pass with the grey and white zenithal primering method, then settled in to start painting!

I started off by giving the models a wash of Vallejo Pale Grey, concentrating on the recesses. After that I went back with some white to pick out some of the upper edges that would catch the light. Anything that is going to be metal or rubber was then blocked in with black, followed by a drybrush of Boltgun Metal and dark grey, respectively. The shoulder pads and backpacks were given several coats of Imperial Blue, and will be highlighted with ultramarine blue (though that hasn't been done as yet. They are coming along nicely though!

I've also been working on an old-style Land Speeder. Ron over at From The Warp recently did an article about making your own waterslide transfers, and was nice enough to send me a sheet of World Eaters symbols for me to try out (potentially saving me a lot of trouble hand-painting umpteen zillion of 'em), so I gave them a try on the speeder. The sheet that Ron made for me (thanks again Ron!) used the 'transparent' paper which works a treat over light colored panels, but requires a bit of finesse when used over darker colors.

In the case of the shoulder pads, I ended up painting a white circle then centering the transfer over the top of it. The intention is then to go back in and clean up the white with the original shoulder pad color, though I do sort of like the look with the white circle as well...

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Pressing onward with the World Eaters, this time around it's the transport for the Berzerkers - The Storm Eagle! I'm really pleased with the look of the model, and it was a blast to paint though in retrospect I should have left it a bit less assembled than I did. It would have been a much easier job had I left the wing separate during the build process. Ah well, I was in the zone while building it and got carried away...

I went back and forth on the blue and white breakdown, and finally settled on just picking out various flaps and ailerons in blue, leaving the majority of the model in white. Once I had it all blocked in, I went over it with a sponge to add some scrapes and peeled paint along the leading edges where it would logically be taking the brunt of the weathering.

The yellow missiles and the green glow n the cockpit help to break up the vast fields of white and give the model a bit of spot color here and there.The front of the vessel got the brunt of the weathering, as I figured it would be most likely to take a beating on the way to the landing zone.

I left the top hatch loose in the painting stage to allow access to the pilot. I've really liked the "instrument panel glow" effect that I've seen others use on their flyers and gave it a go m'self. Statted off by painting in the main colors on the pilot and then gave him a light green wash, then highlighted the edges that would be lit up by the console. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how it all came together!

At this point everything that I have built for the World Eaters is now painted. Time to reward myself with some build time!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Bit more forward motion on the World Eaters - this time it's a two-ton brick of rage otherwise known as Bale, Berzerker Dreadnought! In contrast to the earlier Contemptor Dread, Bale is quite a bit more ornamented, with plenty of gold trim, spike and skulls, as his secret dedication to Khorne begins to make itself known upon his armored form.

I figured Bale would be pretty gory, as his main weapons are a pair of Dreadnought CCW's. I did a little flicking with a paintbrush for spatter, then went with a sponge/drybrush effect to spatter on the rest. After that, a little red wash here and there to get into some of the crevices.

Definitely happy with the PuppetsWar arms, though I do think they're more suited to the Contemptor dread from a sizing perspective. They're a little ape-like on the regular dread, but in this case I think it works!

While I was at it I pulled out all the models I've built and painted for the Heresy-Era World Eaters so far. The question now is do I jump in and paint the Storm Eagle, or reward myself with some more build time? Lots of models in boxes that need to be put together yet, but I'm trying my best to only build one or two units at a time so I don't end up feeling overwhelmed with the "I have to paint ALL that?" feeling...

Monday, June 4, 2012

Got some hobby time in over the weekend, and polished off the first of what will end up being several squads of Heresy-era World Eaters Terminators. This unit is the 1st company, 1st terminator squad which I envision as being composed of veterans from when they were still the War Hounds, hence the overall restraint in the blood and skulls factor. For the most part, my veterans could be considered Pre-Heresy in that respect (of course the stonking great chain-axes they favored even then had to have aroused a bit of suspicion...). The second terminator squad will be Angron's primarch honor guard, 'The Devourers', and will be quite a bit less restrained in their favor of Khorne - the Visions of Heresy artwork shows them in the much more familiar "blood, bone and brass" paint scheme, which I think will contrast nicely with these guys!

Overall I'm well pleased with the torso and shoulder kit, and the combi-weapons worked out nicely, though in future builds I'm planning on beefing up the magazine, which I think would help the overall look. The Devourers will utilize a similar torso and shoulder kit with some minor variations that I quite like (includes a gorget in front of the helmet) and I feel are the closest to the art of the set. Unfortunately out of the five variant torso/shoulder kits, there are two styles that don't fit the aesthetic I'm going for, so they'll be squirreled away in the Closet of Doom for use with the Emperor's Children and Death Guard I plan to (eventually) work on. Never too soon to gather bits for a future project!

About Me

I've been an avid follower of 40k since the original days of Rogue Trader. Back in 1988 I picked up my first copy of the rulebook and good old RTB01 - the box of plastic beaky space marines and the rest as they say is history. 20 years later I'm still playing with little army men... And enjoying every minute of it!